warm ups

i like to use this

<http://www.guitarshredshow.com/>

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What are good ones you can do before you even touch the guitar?Mainly ones to get the blood flowing and to loosen up.

I got those gripper things. Are those a good idea?

yah sure, and you could do legato's in the air too

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Warm ups are for teh weak

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Warm ups are for people who don't want to risk injury.

Check out Petrucci's Rock Discipline for a pretty solid bunch of warm-ups. I'd be surprised if it wasn't on youtube or your favorite downloading method (to preview before you buy the DVD of course!).

Check these finger independence exercises out.. it's pretty good for warm-ups, since it's supposed to be done pretty slowly and mainly works on control of fingers instead of high-speed accuracy.
http://www.zentao.com/guitar/lesson7/left-hand.html
http://www.zentao.com/guitar/lesson8/left-hand.html

What I do in addition to the things above is just do scales or chromatics very slowly with a metronome, watching every movement of my fingers.

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Being so pedantic and actually focusing on your fingers in the long run may become a bad habit. Too many times I've seen people doing 'warm ups' that just arn't productive, such as excessive force on fretting/pulling fingers away from the fretboard. Guitar playing can be very casual and relaxed, as should the forms of warm ups. Don't take it too seriously, leave that for the irritating swarms of 'musicians that study jazz'. In the meantime I'm happy using my own common sense to figure out what benefits playing and what doesn't.

A simple path to take is to just stick on backing tracks and warm up by riffing etc in say regular 8ths and triplets of the same 'speed'. Within a few minutes your fingers will get itchy and the speed should begin to flow comfortably. No one wants to end up in a state where they need a specific half-hour warmup before playing everytime, so just learn how to naturally compact this into your regular lifely chores... Stretch in the shower or whatever, then just pace yourself. Basically just be aware of what your body is doing, but don't focus on it unless it's a case of resting or stopping to prevent irritation to any pains etc that may develop

During the early course of playing, just toy around with a few different basic techniques (like trilling, tapping, legato etc, basically briefly focus on the left hand then back to the right etc) within a scale etc, but do this to appropriate backing; far too many people waste too much time playing with just the guitar. With backing you'll find a groove and develop the mechanics/musical 'awareness' at a far greater rate, as well as having a consistent tempo/key in which to use, causing an actual feeling of progression.

I know the sound and structure etc on this is pretty shite, but it illustrates the concept of using backing to develop a warm-up etc...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MeoUcDXEEiw


Hope that helps

Hehe, you just pretty much nailed my warmup techniques :P

Another good one, as you said is to stick a bakcking track on. I find it really easy just to solo (starting off easy, then build it up as you go on) over a blues progression or something, god practice aswell as a good warmup

Hey Joam you need to put atreyu0's original post before mine in your sig so that it makes sense.

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Bad habit? Can you elaborate on this?

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consider it done

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I didn't speak with a definate tongue, just watch out that you don't slip into the habit of having to watch your fingers. When I used to watch my hands it used to retard my playing and make it feel uncomfortable, but now I generally only do it to find positions on the neck etc. I guess this was maybe down to the fact that I hardly move my fingers when I play, so when I watch my hands moving slowly things don't really add up and itused to be frustrating.

You may find better access to fluency through simple things as looking to your right and towards the floor. Take advantage of simple flaws of the human 'construction' as even basic things like eye direction allow different areas of your brain to become enhanced. It's the same principle of when people are talking, generally when people think they'll look towards the top right, whereas when people are lying or creating things they'll tend to look towards the top left. May sound daft, but after reading this you may be suprised at how apparent it may seem.

Feel free to pass this off as bullshit, but it's yet another unconsiderable thing to consider

Well yeah, but playing/practicing is a lot different than warming up. I agree, though, that if somebody isn't cautioned against staring at their hands while playing normally, it can hinder their performance later on.

It should be noted that I'm still trying to hone my technique, too, so I try to keep my fingers in check as much as possible. Getting started each day by really forcing my fingers to be disciplined helps. When I can move up from 160bpm to 200bpm 16ths, I doubt I'll be concentrating so hard on every finger movement while warming up, because I'll be a bit more confident that I won't slip into a more sloppy technique.

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Good warm up: Run ur hand under warm water for about 30 seconds. Then stretch your hands and fingers out and massage them. Then run up and down the neck doing scales in box patterns, sequences are also good. This for about 3-5 minutes. Then perhaps jam to some songs you have already mastered. Then you should be fully warmed up and ready for hardcore practicing.

Adding warm water to your hands will essentially just lead to them cooling down - the presence of heat outside the hands etc will result in dilation of capillaries etc as a mechanism of cooling down the area. It's the same principle as why you shouldn't sit someone with hypothermia in a hot bath/next to a fire, only not quite as severe If you want your hands warming heat up at your wrists, or better still, just wear long sleeve T-shirts etc. A warm arm pit means warm hands

Basically my warmup consists of a palm-muted, alternate picked chromatic run to get my fret fingers in gear. I also like to play Stormgods Unbound or Wolflust to get my picking hand warmed up to speed and that's about it. No big science behind that.
Or I just play whatever the fuck I feel like playing at that given time. No matter what, just playing is as good a warmup as anything for me.

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when i warm up..i just play something slower that is in whatever tuning i'm in...like at the gates - the burning darkness, or death - voice of the soul..maybe play a couple times since they aren't very long songs, or just find other slower songs, then play something a bit faster..then once i feel i'm warmed up..i dive into whatever it is i'm trying to learn or just play that is faster.

It's not completely meant to warm your hands, it loosens them up a bit since your hands may be a bit stiff if it's cold inside the house. Obviously that's why you do the warm up excercises to reinforce your hands being warm. I think you're scientifically over-analyzing it too much.

just massage your wrists and fingers, so the blood can go through nice and easy,. and you could stretch your fingers, thats about it, basicaly what petrucci says in his video

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Jerking off helps!

I tend to prefer to have my hands dry as a bone before I play. If I do the dishes and get 'granny' hands, it really sucks when I play. Although my wrists and hands are warm already.

I find that I wear a hoodie and sweater and do some slow stuff/noodling and let my body warm itself up from the inside. When my hand is warm on the inside but cold on the outside, that's when I play my best.

Noodling and jerking only help after you've played.

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